Mateus 26

Jesus told his disciples of his coming arrest. The Jewish leaders planned how to seize Jesus.

1 When Jesus had finished saying all those things, he said to us disciples, 2 "You know that two days from now we will celebrate the Passover festival. At that time I, the one who came from heaven, will be handed over to {they will put me, the one who came from heaven, into the hands of} those who will nail me to a cross."

3 At the same time the chief priests and the Jewish elders gathered in the home of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas. 4 There they plotted how they could seize Jesus in some deceitful way so that they could have him executed. 5 But they said, "We must not do it during the Passover festival, because if we do it then, the people might riot."

Jesus commended a woman for showing her appreciation of him.

6 While Jesus and we were in Bethany village in the home of Simon, whom Jesus had healed of leprosy, 7 a woman came to him. She was carrying a stone jar containing very expensive perfume. To show how much she appreciated Jesus, she poured the perfume on his head as he was eating. 8 When we disciples saw that, some of us were angry. One of us said, "◄It is terrible that this perfume was wasted!/Why was this perfume wasted?► [RHQ] 9 We could have sold it and gotten a lot of money for it! Then the money could have been given {we could have given the money} to poor people." 10 Jesus knew what we were saying. So he said to us, "◄You should not be bothering this woman!/Why are you bothering this woman?► [RHQ] She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 Keep in mind that you will always have poor people among you, so you can help them whenever you want to. But I will not always be with you, so it is good for her to show now that she appreciates me! 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, it was as if she knew that I am going to die soon. And it is as if she has anointed my body for being buried. 13 I will tell you this: Wherever this good message about me is preached {people preach this good message about me} throughout the world, those who preach it will tell what this woman has done, and as a result people will always remember her."

Judas agreed to betray Jesus for 30 silver coins.

14 Then Judas Iscariot (OR, Judas, the man from Kerioth Town), even though he was one of us twelve disciples, went to the chief priests. 15 He asked them, "If I enable you to seize Jesus, how much money are you willing to give me?" They agreed to give him 30 silver coins. So they counted out the coins and gave them to him. 16 From that time Judas watched for an opportunity to enable them to seize Jesus.

Two disciples prepared the Passover meal. During the meal, Jesus said that Judas would betray him.

17 On the first day of the week-long festival ◄when we Jews ate bread which had no yeast in it/of Unleavened Bread►, we disciples went to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to prepare the meal for the Passover celebration so that we can eat it with you?" 18 In reply, he gave instructions to two disciples about where they should go. He said to them, "Go into the city to a man with whom I have previously arranged this. Tell him that the teacher says, ‘The time [MTY] that I told you about is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover meal with my disciples at your house, and I have sent these two to prepare the meal.’" 19 So the two disciples did as Jesus told them. They went and prepared the Passover meal in that man’s house.

20 When it was evening, Jesus was eating the meal with us twelve disciples. 21 While we were eating, he said to us, "Listen carefully to this: One of you is going to enable my enemies to seize me." 22 We were very sad. We began to say to him, one after the other, "Lord, ◄it is surely not I!/I’m not the one, am I?► [RHQ]" 23 He replied, "The one who will enable my enemies to seize me is one of you who is dipping bread [MTY] into the sauce in the dish along with me. 24 It is certain that I, the one who came from heaven, will die, because that is what has been written {the prophets have written} about me. But there will be terrible punishment for the man who enables my enemies to seize me! It would be better for that man if he had never been born!" 25 Then Judas, the one who was going to betray him, said, "Teacher, ◄surely it is not I!/I’m not the one, am I?► [RHQ]" Jesus replied, "Yes, you are the one."

Jesus gave the disciples the bread and wine to symbolize his coming death.

26 While we were eating, Jesus took a small loaf of bread and thanked God for it. He broke it into pieces and gave it to us disciples, and said, "Take this bread and eat it. It represents my body." 27 Later he took a cup of wine and thanked God for it. Then he gave it to us, saying, "Drink some of the wine in this cup, all of you. 28 The wine in this cup represents my blood, which will soon flow from my body. With my blood I will sign the new agreement that God is making to forgive the sins of many people.